...Medical Malpractice Statute of Limitations In this assignment we will cover the statute of limitations that govern medical malpractice. We will do such by identifying the statute of limitations placed on medical malpractice by Alabama and Massachusetts. We will discuss some of the similarities and differences between the two. The State of Alabama has very specific rules when it comes to the statute of limitations they impose on medical malpractice. In Alabama all actions against health-care providers must be filed within two years after the date of the injury occurred, or within six months of the date the injury was, or should have been, discovered. In no event may a suit be filed more than four years after the date of the act giving rise to the injury occurred. This limitations period applies to minors over four years of age. However, in the case of a minor under four years of age, that minor has until his or her eighth birthday to file a medical malpractice action In Massachusetts there are also certain statutes of limitations for medical malpractice that must be considered if filing a malpractice suit. All medical malpractice actions must be filed within seven years after the date of the act or omission giving rise to the injury with the exception of actiosn for a foreign object being left inside the body, in which case the limitations period begins to run when the plaintiff discovers or should have discovered the presence of the foreign object. For medical malpractice...
Words: 496 - Pages: 2
...Brian Ardizzoni Michael Neil English 1301, Composition 1 25 November 2012 Medical Malpractice For nearly forty years, tort reform constantly becomes an increasingly controversial issue affecting the medical community, the legal community and most of all, the victims of some very unfortunate accidents. Tort reform refers to laws passed on a state-by-state basis which place limits or caps on the type or amount of damages awarded in personal injury lawsuits. Those who advocate medical malpractice tort reform believe limitations should be set on the amount of damages a plaintiff or injured party can be rewarded by the court. These advocates usually include medical professionals and insurance companies. Their argument is that too many frivolous lawsuits lead to high malpractice insurance, the increasing cost of medical care and a burden on the taxpayers whose tax dollars absorb the extravagant litigation costs for these claims. They believe doctors will eventually be unable to practice medicine due to costly malpractice insurance premiums which may leave many Americans unable to obtain much-needed healthcare. In the past, as the rate of malpractice suits began to grow, so did the rate of malpractice insurance. This ended up having a dire impact on the medical profession. For one thing, many qualified doctors ended up leaving their practices and focusing more on preventative medicine. In other words, they...
Words: 3268 - Pages: 14
...Medical Malpractice and Quality of Care: With the increase in costs of malpractice insurance for doctors, how is our quality of care affected and what can be done about it? Rising malpractice insurance affects everyone seeking medical care and should be a cause for serious concern. At first, the health care industry saw rising premiums as only a temporary backlash from a couple of lawsuits with multimillion dollar jury awards. Therefore, health care administrators, insurance companies, and public officials worried little about planning for the snow-balling crisis that exists today. People blame greedy lawyers and generous juries for the problem; however, I feel that more than one cause led to our current situation. Today, administrators and lawmakers debate the best solution to this dilemma. Many suggest that by merely capping monetary damages awarded, malpractice rates will stabilize. I disagree. I believe that monetary caps must occur to help with the costs, but I also feel that patient/public awareness is essential to the stabilization of insurance premiums. After the first multimillion dollar award in a medical malpractice lawsuit, physicians still felt safe because they believed juries would place little or no emphasis on non-economic damages – awards unrelated to medical costs, lost salary, etc. However, the lawsuits kept coming and the awards, especially for non-economic damages, kept escalating. According to the New York Times, “the average jury...
Words: 2636 - Pages: 11
...Ethics Case Study XXXXXXXXXX HCS/335 May 2, 2011 Beryl Keegan, RN, BSN, MSN/HCE, CCRN, CLNC Ethics Case Study "Jerry McCall is Dr. William's office assistant. He has received professional training as both a medical assistant and a LPN. He is handling all the phone calls while the receptionist is at lunch. A patient calls and says he must have a prescription refill for Valium, an antidepressant medication, called in right away to his pharmacy, since he is leaving for the airport in thirty minutes. He says that Dr. Williams is a personal friend and always gives him a small supply of Valium when he has to fly. No one except Jerry is in the office at this time. What should he do" (Fremgen, 2009, p. 85)? Medical ethics is a subject open to much interpretation and is prone to many grey area's without definite answers. In the case of Jerry McCall, Medical Assistant, Licensed Practical Nurse and Office Assistant the rationale, ethical and legal, for not refilling a prescription without physician consent are justified. If Mr. McCall chooses to refill the unauthorized prescription and the patient has an adverse reaction, his employer, Dr. William's can be held legally responsible for the committed tort even though he is personally without fault (Regan & Regan, 2002). Ethical and legal ramifications are at stake; using effective problem-solving methods to assist with decision making can help to avert a problematic outcome. Qualifications Required for Authorizing Prescriptions ...
Words: 1250 - Pages: 5
...Imagine waking up from a double mastectomy surgery to hear the great news that you do not have cancer, to only find out later that you never had cancer and that your medical chart got mixed up with another patient who does. This type of situation was caused by medical malpractice and negligence by the physician. In this paper key topic that will be discussed is the definition of negligence, lawsuits, standard of care, malpractice, malpractice cases, and the law. Negligence is the unintentional or omission of an act that a sensible person would not have done or looked over. A negligent person might also disregard their duties whereas a sensible person would not. There are different types of negligence which include misfeasance, malfeasance, and nonfeasance. Misfeasance is when a provider does the correct action incorrectly causing an injury. Malfeasance is when a provider performs an act that is deemed unlawful such as performing a procedure in a state where it is illegal. Nonfeasance is when a provider fails to perform duties that a reasonable person would have fulfilled. In order for a person or party to claim that negligence played a part in an injury, medical condition, or death it must be proven. There are multiple key factors that must occur such as a breach in the standard of care and negligence is responsible for the injury. Standard of care is the level of care that a patient can expect to receive. A breach in care is just the opposite the patient does not receive...
Words: 1359 - Pages: 6
...rising cost of Medical Malpractice insurance Sharron Wickham BU224 Kaplan University Professor Greg Evans April 3, 2014 Quick rising medical malpractice premiums have become a concerning problem and a discussion for doctors, insurance policy writers and even the public. The rise in medical malpractice insurance costs can have a big effect in the way health care is given in the U.S. Rises in the premiums can change the size of our doctor workforce and can even cause the doctors to practice “defensive medicine”. Medical malpractice insurance premiums are a huge discussion and have changed over the past 30 years, affecting the areas doctors are trying to work in and how they are practicing medicine, this can cause the people to not receive the best care they can. Just 30 years ago a doctor could feel comfortable in the room with his patient, laugh talk about the family and enjoy the time with the patient, as well as take care of their health needs. There were way more doctors that made house calls back in the day and more doctors willing to practice medicine in any area. So what changed? The fact that patients took advantage of the doctors and started suing doctors for malpractice. Malpractice claims have been known to have juries that make excessively generous awards knowing that insurance companies pay. For this reason, malpractice premiums have skyrocketed over the past 30 years. According to Towers Perrin, a global professional services firm, malpractice litigation...
Words: 1347 - Pages: 6
...Malpractice Statutes Tort is an intentional or unintentional, non-criminal wrong that causes injury to another party. The injury can be physical, mental, or monetary. Once an injury occurs the wronged party can sue the wrongdoer for damages (Simon, Eddins, & Greenstone, 2009). Malpractice is one type of tort; tort reform is passed at a state level in regard to the laws regarding malpractice. The state can develop laws that cap the amount of reimbursement a judge can award for punitive damages a patient or family can acquire for damages in relation to malpractice. Tort reform, is an aspect that can attract physicians to specific states based on how friendly the practice environment is for health care providers. Tort reform aims to limit the liabilities of the wrongdoer. Those supporting tort reform claim that such changes will reduce frivolous lawsuits therefore reducing the cost of insurance (Simon et al., 2009). Tort reform can put tighter constraints on medical malpractice lawsuits taken to court, opposed to those that are dismissed. Essentially medical malpractice is, negligence or error committed by a health care professional where there is harm caused to the patient. Reductions of malpractice insurance would serve to reduce the cost of health care. Each state sets its own requirements regarding what is required for practitioners to have for insurance coverage to cover the practitioner for any lawsuits charge on them for malpractice. This paper will review two different...
Words: 1562 - Pages: 7
...Nursing Name: Liz Ortiz Health Rights & Resp Nursing In the field of health care, the word malpractice originally encapsulated the negligent mistakes or wrongs that a physician did. In the past, a distinct division subsisted between a physician and a nurse. The nurse operated within a well-defined framework that mainly entailed implementing orders from the physician. The roles of diagnosing patients, treating their different symptoms, and prescribing medication to them were solely roles of the physician. Thus, it was virtually unprecedented for a physician's orders to be criticized by a nurse since nurses (Peterson & Zimmerman, 2006). However, times have changed, and the roles of a nurse have substantially changed. Presently, nurses commonly assume some physician's roles such as patient's examination of patients, diagnosis, and their subsequent treatment without any arranged supervision of a physician. Nursing has evidently matured into an increasingly specialized, advanced, sophisticated, and independent profession hence expanding the roles of a nurse. Resultantly, the liability for fundamental nursing negligence has moved to its professional counterpart, which is malpractice liability. Nevertheless, obstetrical nursing is the field of nursing that is highly taxing since it involves the most delicate tasks of assisting doctors to handle pregnant women and delivering them of their babies (Peterson & Zimmerman, 2006). A situation in which a nurse can be...
Words: 1020 - Pages: 5
...1. Justify your position about the importance of the physician-patient and hospital-patient relationships. The relationships of the physician –patient and hospital-patient are both extremely important and equally impact the health of the patient as well as the success of the hospital and physician. The physician-patient relationship is the center of health care due to the fact that one of the main aspects of a patient’s care is his/her discussion with the physician. In the past, patients had to rely solely on the directions and information provided by the physician in order to make important health care decisions. Patients were also limited in their access to health care facilities as well as hospitals. In today’s society this is not the case because most patients have the ability to seek second opinions, research alternate conditions/treatments, as well as rate physician care/hospital services through social media on the internet. A cancer patient in TN may travel to TX to receive treatment from a specific specialist and/or a highly recommended facility. Since the dynamics of the physician-patient and hospital-patient has changed, the relationship has changed but its importance has not. Therefore, it is essential that both the physician and the hospital facility itself have a good rapport with the patient in an effort to continuously build the relationship. A poor relationship between the patient and the hospital and/or physician could compromise the ability of the patient to...
Words: 1214 - Pages: 5
...Medical Malpractice Tort Reform in the Healthcare Industry Medical malpractice reform, also known as tort reform, includes strategies to limit medical malpractice costs, deter medical errors and ensure that patients who are injured by medical negligence are fairly compensated. Tort reform has the potential to reduce health care expenditures by reducing the number of malpractice claims, the average size of malpractice awards and tort liability system administrative costs (Medical Malpractice Reform, 2011). Since the 1970s, medical malpractice has been a controversial social issue, which has caused physicians to have increasing concerns about the large number of lawsuits and the negative connotations that tend to go along with them. Physicians have started pushing for legal reforms to decrease the large monetary awards for damages whereas tort attorneys have argued that the negligence suits are an effective way of compensating the victims fairly and forcing the medical professions to follow a proper standard of care (Pozgar, 2013). An article from the Journal of Patient Safety estimates that between 210,000 to 400,000 people die every year in the U.S. from hospital medical errors and 1 in 14 U.S. doctors face a malpractice lawsuit every year (Corapi, 2014). Physicians and healthcare providers argue that the millions of dollars that are awarded in damages increase the cost of healthcare by passing this cost onto the consumer in the form of higher insurance premiums and...
Words: 2062 - Pages: 9
...State Medical Malpractice Creating Change Within Organizations HCS 587 Most hospitals, staff nurse and physicians biggest fear, is being sued for malpractice. As health care providers, we strive to do right by the patient, always practicing safety first. Medical malpractice, periodically referred to as medical negligence, it happens when a health care provider violates the governing standard of care when providing treatment to a patient, the source the patient to suffer an injury. The United States malpractice system has two objectives: to compensate patients who are injured through negligence by a healthcare provider and to discourage health care providers from practicing negligently Malpractice is a personal-injury law. For a person to be able to sue the plaintiff they must prove that the “defendant breached his/her duty by failing to adhere to the standard of care, and the breach of duty caused an injury to the the plaintiff” (Studdert,et al, 2004). It is up to the plaintiff to prove with evidence that the health care provider, hospital or clinic is responsible. In the United states, we have over 50 states and each and every one of them have their own medical malpractice statutes/laws. Majority seem to not have a good model to be an example of medical malpractice statutes, below Nebraska and Indiana’s statutes seem to be doing something right. They both also have similarities which may be why I choose them and prefer there way of dealing with damages...
Words: 1528 - Pages: 7
...Between 1985 and 1999 hospitals were defendants in 61 percent of 394 medical antitrust disputes that led courts to issue formal opinions (hospitals were plaintiffs in only 6 percent. These numbers understate the burden of hospital antitrust litigation because most filed claims do not result in a published judicial opinion).” Hospital is a business that provides medical service to patients and there will always be competitors that produce social benefits. For example, Medical Malpractice is one of the major area that fail to provide quality health care medical treatment to patients, the victims of medical malpractice seek compensation for their physical or emotional injuries, or both, through a Negligence action. When patients suffered an injury, which he or she should be compensated, the reason for his or her injuries was because the physician’s violation of the standard of care. However, although the physicians is the cause of his or her injuries like according to (Farlex, 2012) “To protect themselves against the massive costs of such claims, physicians purchase malpractice insurance. Physicians' malpractice premiums total billions of dollars each year and add substantially to the cost of health care in the United States. In some specialties, such as obstetrics, 50 percent of the cost for medical services goes for the provider's malpractice premiums. Many physicians, faced with the rising tide of malpractice premiums, practice "defensive medicine" by ordering tests and procedures...
Words: 868 - Pages: 4
...Running Head: Malpractice Legal and Regulatory Issues Malpractice Legal and Regulatory Issues Malpractice Legal and Regulatory Issues Malpractice Legal and Regulatory Issues Malpractice is an issue that is always can affect a healthcare office. Malpractice is when the improper or negligent treatment of a patient, as by a physician, resulting in injury, damage, or loss of life. Physicians have insurance for this in case an incident occurs. Physicians follow a code that states do no harm but sometimes harm occurs due to their negligence to underlined issues. If underlined issues dealing with your diagnosis is not checked out then it can lead to further injuries and even death. Medical malpractice can cost a facility or hospital millions even billions of dollars each year. Medical malpractice not only will cost money but it can also hurt a hospital or facility reputation for treatment for patients. Medical malpractice cases require stringent and comprehensive clinical review, and hospitals always employ medical experts to review their cases. The clinical issues are always analyzed, but often overlooked is the evaluation of the corporate responsibilities of the hospital involved in the matter. It is becoming increasingly likely that the hospital will be included in the claim as plaintiff attorneys are very aware that courts are finding corporate negligence as a factor in many claims, and more and more states are recognizing corporate negligence as a contributing...
Words: 804 - Pages: 4
...law for a civil wrong. The goal of tort reform in Texas is to create and maintain a fair, honest, and predictable civil justice system that balances the rights of both plaintiffs and defendants. House Bill 4 (HB4) was enacted to curtail frivolous lawsuits, limit runaway jury awards, and reduce malpractice liability insurance premiums in 2003. Depending on whom you agree with, Texas tort reform has helped in some areas, but also hurt in other areas. The Need for Reform Prior to 2003, Texas was known as one of the nation’s “judicial hellholes.” The state’s system of justice allowed for laws to be applied arbitrarily. Enforcement of personal property rights and contracts varied depending on which local court had the case. Furthermore, certain counties had bad reputations regardless of the court. Judicial outcomes often depended on which attorney was before which judge in which county (Nixon, 2013). The following examples show the mess of the Texas tort system: * One out of every four doctors had a malpractice claim filed against them each year. * 85 percent of medical malpractice claims failed, but cost more than $50,000 to defend. * The number of medical malpractice insurers in Texas dropped from 17 in 2000 to only four in 2003. * Class action defendants almost always settled once the class was certified by the trial judge. * Plaintiffs were given too much latitude in choosing which county to bring suit. The Basics of HB4 in 2003 In 2003, HB4 was...
Words: 2078 - Pages: 9
...Negligence Latasha Adegboruwa University of Phoenix Health Law and ethics HCS/478 Lynda White April 18, 2011 Negligence “Registered nurses have more professional accountability than at any other time in the history of nursing. As a result, nurses must confront the fact that they now owe a higher duty of care to their patients, and by extension, are more exposed to civil claims for negligence than ever before”(Weld and Bibb, 2009, p 2). “Negligence is described as failure to use such care as a reasonable prudent and careful person would use under similar circumstances” (Weld and Bibb, 2009, p3). Common examples of negligence are malnutrition, inadequate hydration, physical injury was done, and it was the result of the nurse’s care or lack thereof. There are five main elements in a nursing negligence case and all five elements have to be proven for a case to be valid 1. The nurse had a duty to perform. 2. The appropriate care was not apparent in the situation. 3. There was a breach of violation of care 3. There was injury proven to result from the nurse’s negligence and 5. There is proof that damages occurred as a direct result of the situation. (Avery, 2009). Gross negligence is a more serious form of negligence and goes further than carelessness. While regular negligence is seen as a person falling below the standard of care, gross negligence is seen as complete failure to show care and in fact implies recklessness or a willful disregard for the safety...
Words: 1167 - Pages: 5
